On January 31, Ronald McDonald House celebrates the grand opening of the Ronald McDonald Family Room at UAMS to provide respite for families with infants in the NICU. “Wesley Walls, architect with Polk Stanley Wilcox, and his team have designed a beautiful space that will provide four overnight rooms for NICU families where they can stay steps away from their babies,” says Janell Mason, executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas. “The room also has a day-use space for all NICU families to enjoy a sense of normalcy. We interviewed past families of the NICU and they said, You’ve just got to be able to get away from the beeping monitors.”
The Family Room also provides a space for toddlers and older children to play, so parents with children to care for outside of the NICU can do so while still being near their babies. In addition to providing drawings for the Family Room’s design, Polk Stanley Wilcox was able to get many materials for the interiors donated or deeply discounted. “That accounted for $39,000 in savings for us, which, as a nonprofit, is huge,” Janell says. “We’re really excited they took the time to do that.”
Learn more at rmhcarkansas.org.
